Volkswagen Group To Introduce New SSP Electric Architecture By 2025
This new platform will be used by all the brands under the group and it can be used to produce cars for all segments, says VW.
The Volkswagen Group has decided to introduce its new SSP electric architecture by 2025 which will underpin models of all brands under its fold.
This decision, using standardised technical foundations, has been taken to reduce complexity of future vehicles and leverage economies of scale. The idea focuses on 4 main elements – hardware, software, batteries and charging.
Volkswagen already has the Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB), an all-electric platform that is now being produced in China, Europe, and the USA. By next year, 27 MEB-based models will be on sale across the world.
Even as that happens, Volkswagen will launch new vehicles based on its Premium Platform Electric (PPE). These vehicles will boast of faster acceleration, shorter charging times and higher range.
A short while later, by the middle of the decade, the Volkswagen Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) electric architecture will be introduced for all brands of the group to use.
It is not just the platforms that the auto group is focusing on either. From 2023, a unified cell will be introduced by the group and by 2030, the battery pack is to be installed in around 80 percent of all the group brands’ EVs.
By doing so, the cost of battery cells, says Volkswagen, will be reduced by up to 50 percent in the entry-level segment and by up to 30 percent in higher segments.
While reducing the cost of battery cells, the group will also increase their production. Six battery factories with a total capacity of 240 gigawatt hours (GWh) will come up in Europe alone by the end of the decade, says Volkswagen.
Other areas the group is spending its energy on include expansion of public fast-charging network, mobility services, on-board connectivity and software, among others.
A total of €46 billion (around Rs. 4 lakh crores) will be spent by the group in the next 5 years on electric mobility and for hybridisation of its fleet. If all these go according to plan, the Volkswagen Group says it will become the market leader in electric mobility by 2025.
